Companies with employees located in different parts of the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to employee communications. Not only is there a need to communicate across different time-zones and geographic locations, but there can also be language and cultural barriers to overcome.
It has become an increasingly common aspect of business in the era of globalization with many companies large and small having an international presence. Your organization can have effective communications with your global employees if you take time to do some planning, and commit to improving cultural awareness.
These are some of the best ways to have effective communication in the global workplace:
1. Have a strategy in place
If you want to communicate effectively, you need to have a roadmap to guide you. What do you want to achieve and what steps are you going to take to get there? With a plan in place it will be easier to reach your goals.
2. Have the right messages for the right audiences
Some of the information a company communicates to its employees is appropriate for every single staff member to receive – for example, messages from the CEO, major announcements or an update on the direction the company is taking. However some messaging will be regional/country specific. It is important to ensure that your employees in far-flung parts of the world aren’t left out of the former, and that efforts are made to foster and encourage the latter to help build your company culture.
3. Understand cultural implications
When you are operating in a global environment, you need to reach people across different languages and cultures. Some cultures respond more favorably to technology and written communications, while others prefer face-to-face and more persona forms of communication. Take time to understand the unique needs of your company’s global workforce and respond as appropriate.
4. Have the right tools for the job
Having a range of tools for effective internal communications in your arsenal will help you when you are communicating globally. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so you will need to understand the cultural barriers, geographic issues, distance and time zones that affect communication in your organization and deliver your messaging with the right tools for the job.
Newsletters, videos, wikis, intranet, corporate social media and meetings are all traditional internal communications channels that can be very effective. DeskAlerts can assist by instantly sending a pop up message to every employee, no matter where they are in the world. You can even schedule messages so they appear at certain times in different time zones.
5. Measure your efforts
Like any internal communications campaign, you need to include metrics to determine whether or not it has been a success. This might include surveying staff (which you can do easily with DeskAlerts) to get feedback on your communication methods and messages.
